The Daily ITK Discussion Thread - The Aquarius Edition 22nd July 2013

[Supersi32]

which still leaves us with sandro, dembele, holtby, carroll, paulinho and sigurdsson for a maximum of three midfield spots.

Exactly, giving us plenty of options and allowing for injury, suspension, fatigue, loss of form etc whilst keeping everyone on their toes battling for those starting spots.

 

[Mullers]

Waste of time buying Remy tbh, first of all Levy has got to see how this rape charge pans out, 2nd we lack killer instinct inside the box he won't provide that. He's versatile but then so is a lump of plasticine.

 

[o1fozzybear]

Player negotiations probably. As most people know Levy has an a fairly seriously ill wife and probably cant dedicate time to it. Although no doubt he still has to sign off on things.

Yeah probably...tho I doubt levy would let anyone else spend his money without absolutely ripping the shit out of all previous negotiations.

 

[Mr Pink]

Wenger denies they've bid for Bernard! (in the Bernard thread)

 

[Flashspur]

leave Bernard and move on lads

 

[Cavehillspur]

Wenger denies they've bid for Bernard! (in the Bernard thread)

They dont need him, not surprised. I dont think we will sign him either tbh.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

leave Bernard and move on lads

But I don't wanna...

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Let's face it, if we were signing Remy and McCarthy from the Brazilian or Spanish leagues plenty here would be wetting their pants with excitement whilst pouring over grainy 3 minute pieces of heavily edited YouTube highlights against teams they've never heard of.

Appreciate players from Wigan and QPR dont exactly get the pulses racing as much but these players put in consistent quality performances in the same league that we actually compete in despite both being in dreadful sides that were struggling for results. I'm not really sure what else they were expected to do last season.

I say sign them up. For those that don't like it, just pretend they're called Remos and McCarthinho and that we're signing them from Flumanigos Juniors.

I'll be honest I haven't seen alot of McCarthy, so I wouldn't be pro or anti that signing but I saw a bit of Remy and I really dont rate him. He definitely didn't put in consistent quality performances. For me doesn't matter what team or league he's coming from. I actually think it's the other way around, where people will get excited with any signing we make instead of thinking how they will improve the team. For me take every signing on there own merit irrespective of where they come from.

 

[nicdic]

Let's try and keep the Bernard chat in the Bernard thread please.

 

[ParkySpur]

Um, Bernard (One of our targets) is off to Arsenal for a medical and they got Sanogo for free (as I recall, we were interested in him too), Everton have bought quite a few young players that look very promising, Villa has made 5 signings and kept Benetke, Chelsea made 3 good signings, Liverpool have signed a few including K. Toure and Alberto from Sevilla etc..

Here is a link to all the signings. If you think getting 5th is going to be easy then you are deluded as it looks to me that a lot of the top 10 clubs are strengthening their squads in a big way and it will be a LOT more challenging this season. At least it will keep the league competetive but we can't rely on Bale to carry the team each season and the strikers should score more often than him. Last season, he scored more than both strikers combined and that shouldn't happen.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2013-14/jun/summer-transfers-2013-ins-and-outs.html

Arsenal haven't signed Bernard. Would you be satisfied with the signings the scouse teams have made. And are you really including Villa? If Chelsea are challenging us for 4th, then they have failed. And I know it's cliche, but I feels like new signings when the likes of Kaboul and Sandro are returning and Bale is staying.

If you really looked at it subjectively, of all the teams challenging for fourth, our business so far is the most impressive.

Fortunately I am not deluded. Which is a relief, as I had to go back and check to see if I had claimed it would be easy.

I'm just making the point that you're making it out as if we are in a poor position compared to our rivals when we are anything but.

 

[Blake Griffin]

Well Siggy usually plays out wide and Carroll needs to go on loan to a lower premiership team where hes going to play 20+ times a season and not 15 minute appearances here and there.

siggy only really played wide because of a lack of options. we now have those in bale, lennon, chadli and townsend so i'd expect siggy to play more centrally next season.

 

[$hoguN]

Well Siggy usually plays out wide and Carroll needs to go on loan to a lower premiership team where hes going to play 20+ times a season and not 15 minute appearances here and there.

Sigurdsson has played within the midfield 3 in preseason though...

 

[Shea]

I disagree. It's clear AVB wants the team in place ASAP and with Baldini now also in the mix I would imagine the days of everything being left up to DL to haggle out to the last minute are potentially behind us.

Given we should have had a small pot of money from last season and the new TV money coming in this season, I think we'll see very little last minute activity this summer.

I hope you're right and its not impossible that we will act quick as we seem to have with Chadli - I hope its the result of Baldini's input and a change of strategy

I suspect however it was more a matter of the deal being cheap, or should I say more within our range and the selling club happy with the price we wanted to pay

I think even with a budget to work within when it comes to spending big like we'd have to to get Soldado -Mr Levy would still require final say to sign things off and things will still get dragged out when there are differences between what we want to pay and the selling club are willing to accept

Benteke probably doesn't prove anything either way - but still I think its a little to good to be true that we'll suddenly see the end of Levy haggling over and over to end up empty handed

 

[himel420]

Wenger denies they've bid for Bernard! (in the Bernard thread)

Wenger also denied cazorla bid...isn't it? :\

 

[jurgen]

Our first XI has proved it can match up to most and compete.. we're struggling to break down weaker teams often.. Our rivals are stacked with wide forwards some of whom score more or create more, but crucially they seem to have options, players who can hit even a little run of form to help blast away a couple of grotbag teams (even rubbish like Gervinho for instance!). So in many respects, Remy - especially on loan-to-buy, does make a lot of sense. If we look at the scum as a more similar template, they can't afford to go and buy the top money wide forwards/mids City or Chelsea have, but they have a good number of decent options, relatively low priced signings that as an aggregate squad can get them through games against the weaker sides. So I'm not against adding Remy at all, though that is of course provisional on us buying another striker who can do the ultimate business. Even if we didn't, it wouldn't be the absolute worst thing in the world...nah - who am I kidding!!! Our current first XI but with Chadli, and then Remy, Lennon, Siggi, Holtby, Dempsey on the bench potentially..well you wouldn't want to face that matchday squad over 90 mins would you.

 

[Beni]

I am not sure how this home grown rule exactly works out, but if its turns into truth that we offload Huddlestone, Parker, Townsend and Defoe, could this impact the amount of home growns we have, and be looking at McCarthy for this reason as a home grown player?

Or it could be for the fact, that he is a really good player, young and be an upgrade on Parker and Huddlestone.

 

[Mr Pink]

Arsenal haven't signed Bernard. Would you be satisfied with the signings the scouse teams have made. And are you really including Villa? If Chelsea are challenging us for 4th, then they have failed. And I know it's cliche, but I feels like new signings when the likes of Kaboul and Sandro are returning and Bale is staying.

If you really looked at it subjectively, of all the teams challenging for fourth, our business so far is the most impressive.

Fortunately I am not deluded. Which is a relief, as I had to go back and check to see if I had claimed it would be easy.

I'm just making the point that you're making it out as if we are in a poor position compared to our rivals when we are anything but.

Great post.

With Kaboul and Sandro returning we are massively strengthened. Keeping Bale with the confidence and billing he now has is the biggest thing we'll do all summer. People forget as well, his blistering form (like top, top level form) only really got going after the Villa away game - that's when he went up another gear IMO. So if he carries on in that vein we get a full season of the 'new' Bale so to speak.

AVB is a year wiser, and that experience is going to be hugely significant in my mind.

So many positives to take going into the new season and it looks like our core business will be done in advance.

 

[chinaman]

Um, Bernard (One of our targets) is off to Arsenal for a medical and they got Sanogo for free (as I recall, we were interested in him too), Everton have bought quite a few young players that look very promising, Villa has made 5 signings and kept Benetke, Chelsea made 3 good signings, Liverpool have signed a few including K. Toure and Alberto from Sevilla etc..

Here is a link to all the signings. If you think getting 5th is going to be easy then you are deluded as it looks to me that a lot of the top 10 clubs are strengthening their squads in a big way and it will be a LOT more challenging this season. At least it will keep the league competetive but we can't rely on Bale to carry the team each season and the strikers should score more often than him. Last season, he scored more than both strikers combined and that shouldn't happen.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2013-14/jun/summer-transfers-2013-ins-and-outs.html

Our strikers, even if unchanged, cannot score as few as last year. They were literally at the bottom, and there's only one way to go.

 

[B.F.G]

Wenger denies they've bid for Bernard! (in the Bernard thread)

What the hell is he doing on our forum??

 

[piedpiper]

Has the goat's cryptic been solved as yet?.